Squire:
The Squire is current the only Cygnar faction warcaster attachment. Warcaster attachments are solo models that hang out with a warcaster and do something cool for them. Generally, they aren't offensive powerhouses in their own right, but instead make life easier for the strongest piece in any given force.
The Squire is no exception. It's a little R2D2 robot thing that follows the 'caster around and opens doors for th... Wait that's not quite right.
It follows the 'caster around and buffs their arcane power. A 'caster's control area is extended 2 inches while the Squire is within 5 inches of the 'caster. The Squire has three "Arcane Accumulator" boxes, which a 'caster can use during the beginning of the turn (only one per turn) to gain an additional focus. That's an extra focus three turns of the game, and many games are over by turn three. Also, a 'caster can reroll a magic attack roll that misses once per turn while close enough to their Squire.
That is a lot of good stuff. Of course, one has to weigh the worth of these advantages with the "cost" of the Squire in army-building points. It costs 2. The average game is between 25 and 50 points. At smaller game sizes the Squire looks a little less awesome, but at 25, it's probably worth it. At 35 or 50, it's almost an auto include.
There are some interesting balancing factors to the Squire's design, such as the fact that a warcaster can only have one attachment. This would be more important if Cygnar had attachment options, but they don't. The Squire is it. Also, the Squire has zero offensive capacity. It has no weapons, so it isn't directly contributing to the fight.
Journeyman Warcaster:
The Journeyman Warcaster, also known as "junior" or simple JR, is a solid supporting solo for Cygnar. I painted mine to look like a junior douchebag and so I will refer to him as McGrath or Sugar Ray for the remainder of my posts.
Sugar Ray has terrible stats. He's got some decent weapons with a Hand Cannon pistol and a magical sword, but dude's melee and ranged attack rating suck balls. He's got decent defensive stats, and 5 wounds, so he might survive a couple shots, but it's best to keep him away from the fray.
The good stuff he brings to the table are his spells and focus stat. He, like a leading warcaster, has some focus. Not much, only 3, but it can take some of the burden of controlling multiple warjacks off of the main ' caster. Often I give Sugar Ray a light ranged jack like the Charger to run, and he performs this task quite well.
Sugar Ray knows two spells as well: the abysmal Arcane Bolt spell, which he should almost never cast, and the awesome upkeep Arcane Shield. Many Cygnar players take McGrath without any 'jacks at all. They have him cast Arcane Shield on a unit or a heavy 'jack on the first turn, and then they keep him back away from the fight. Sugar Ray can then spend one of his three focus to upkeep AS each turn, and has two left over to fire a reasonably accurate fully boosted (boost attack and damage = "fully boosted") Hand Cannon shot each turn. It's not bad at all.
I quite like that he's a versatile model. He can dish out that shot, he can power a Charger, he can buff a friendly unit of infantry, he's all good. Savvy opponents will hunt him down and kill him, ending his Arcane Shield and rendering his Charger inert, so he should be kept safe if possible.
He costs 3 points, which is terribly expensive for a solo, especially one that can't hit for beans without his focus, but he enables so many other units and strategies (Stormblades or a Heavy 'jack with Arcane Shield is great) it's difficult to not take him, even in smaller games.
The Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team:
Hereafter B13 for brevity, this is a squad of gun-toting characters who add an incredible toolbox of abilities to a Cygnar force.
The B13 are a character unit, which means that only one of them can be fielded in a force. Some units, like the Squire, can only be fielded one per army, but since there are rules for larger, multiple warcaster games, in a two-caster game both Stryker and Haley could have a droid. Not so for B13. As a character unit they can exist only once in an entire force.
There are so many reasons to choose the Black 13th it's ridiculous. They cost 4 points for a 3-body unit. That's pretty expensive, but these gunslingers are badass.
All of them have similar stats. They have decent speed and pathetic melee attack scores. However, as they don't have a melee weapon that's all bullshit. They have an amazing ranged attack score, and their defense rating is similarly nuts. However, as they're just fools in flapping trenchcoats their armor rating is abysmal. Even the lightest shot that hits or even low-end blast damage will hurt them. As characters they have 5 wounds, so they could survive a decent blast, but not two. And certainly not any direct hits.
Weaponwise, they have magelock pistols, which are special focuses for their spells as gunmages. Each of them has some spells in common. Whenever they shoot, they get to choose an attack type.
Black Penny is a special bullet that ignores the normal penalties for shooting into melee. Combined with their stellar ranged attack score the B13 are great at getting infantry away from troops who are being held up. I don't use this bullet too often, but it's a good ability in theory.
Snipe extends the base shot of the magelock by 4 inches. I use this on the advance often, though if I'm using a 'caster who has Snipe like Stryker, it doesn't stack with this special shot. It's still a great spell to put on B13 because it extends the range of their other bullets.
Brutal Damage is a bullet that deals an extra die of damage on a hit. This is good because the Magelock pistol, while decent, has only a 10 power shot. On average, it can do 17 damage on a hit. Gun mages can't really crack heavy armor reliably. This bullet adds another average die roll of 3.5 to the mix, meaning the gun mages might actually be able to hurt or kill multi-wound, decently armored troops.
Or enemy warcasters.
'jacks are another story entirely.
Each of the characters in the unit also has some other abilities they bring to the table. We'll start with Lynch, the officer and leader of the unit.
Lynch adds a special attack called Fire Beacon to his arsenal. A Fire Beacon bullet does no damage, but it drops a 5 inch diameter area of effect on the table centered on the target of the shot. Anything under that aoe loses the benefits of concealment (normally a +2 defense), camouflage (+4), cloud effects (which block line of sight and grant concealment), and stealth (ranged attacks from an attacker more than 5 inches away from a stealthed unit automatically miss).
My iPhone keeps trying to autocorrect "steathed" to "steamy Ed".
Lynch also has True Sight, which means he also ignores concealment, stealth, etc. Lynch is badass.
Watts is the next guy in line. He doesn't have any additional attack types, but while Watts is alive members of the B13 have Prowl. Prowl is an ability which gives stealth to any model which has concealment or cover. Running the B13 into the woods on turn one isn't a bad idea if Watts is alive.
Ryan is the last, and perhaps best of the B13. She's got twin Magelock pistols, which grants her an additional attack (with special spell-bullet and all) each turn.
Better yet, Ryan has a special attack called Mage Storm. If she forfeits both her attacks, she can instead fire a storm of magical energy. It centers a 4 inch area of effect on the target. Anything under the area of effect takes a power 12 damage roll. That's much better than blast damage.
In addition, the Mage Storm stays in play until the next turn, and if enemy troops walk through or end their activation there they take a power 12 damage roll.
In addition to that, the storm counts as a cloud effect, meaning it blocks line of sight to stuff hiding in or behind it. Dropping a Mage Storm onto a friendly heavy 'jack isn't a bad idea sometimes. It probably won't hurt the 'jack much (Arcane Shield nearly guarantees it won't) and enemy models won't be able to charge at the heavy due to the cloud effect.
Shooting cheap troops in the back with the Mage storm to block line of sight to a friendly warcaster is solid as well.
Most savvy opponents will kill Ryan first. She's awesome. Of course, if she's screening herself with Mage Storm it will be pretty difficult to knock her down. She's immune to her own mags storm damage, so technically she could follow an ironclad on the advance, shoot it in the back with Mage Storm, and hide within the storm. If Watts is alive, Ryan will get stealth within her own Storm.
While the B13 don't have melee weapons, they do have the Gunfighter advantage, which means they can shoot their ranged weapons in melee. Surrounding Ryan with infantry probably means that she'll drop a Mage Storm into their lap on her next activation.
So the B13 help the whole army with stealth, can generate cloud cover on the advance or block charge lanes with it during a clash, do serious damage to squishier warcasters, hunt enemy solos, or murder a pile of infantry. Warjacks and enemy heavies aren't worried about them, but they are a solid addition to almost every Cygnar force, even at the 15 point level game, which is generally the smallest game size.
In fact, the Battlebox plus the B13 is a 15 point army in an of itself, and it has a ton of versatility.
-Merlin out
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